Thursday, Friday, Saturday!

Well, it's harder to stop and blog about what we've done, but I'm so glad that I am, as when I get back home, it will be hard to remember it all!  Thursday... well, that was Bowling night, and dinner with the team. I did post pics, but didn't talk about it.  We met the Kautex team at a Restaurant, which seemed to be out in the woods, and felt like a lodge kind of... It was a nice place, chilly night, and they had a roaring fire, and our table was right next to it. My seat was RIGHT there! LOVED that fire!  We wanted something a little lighter, as German food all seems pretty heavy, and sauced. NO lighter fare, grilled, salads, steamed veggies here... wow, I don't know how they eat all this fried food and saucy things all the time.  We both had fish. Red snapper, and Trout. The sides ... we kind of ate half. The wines and beer are very good, and reminder ...the beer is COLD, ya'll. NOT warm. That's England!

After dinner we went downstairs to the Kegelball room, and played Kegelball. Bowling... or like it. The balls are smaller, no holes in them, lanes are funky, and rules are varied. There were about 18 of us in the group, so we all played, throwing one, two or 3 balls, based on the rules they changed up each game.  I did OK. Mike, well, he beat everyone 2 out of 3 games... he just has a knack for hand/eye coordination games.  They think he must bowl weekly. NOT.. maybe once a year!  That was a fun evening!

Friday, Mike finished work early afternoon, and we headed out for a few excursions. We found a recommended shoe outlet. I've still been on a quest for a pair of boots, but no such luck as of yet.  Then we found our way to Bad Goedsberg, to the Haribo Shop. OH MY GOODNESS... WHAT a candy store!  We picked up a few goodies for our peeps!  Please line up single file when we return!  ;)  Made it back to Bonn area about 4:20. This is 20 minutes AFTER the banks closed... to exchange more currency. #fail

We head back to the hotel to regroup for a while, and decide to get something lighter for dinner... something normal. Well, ya'll know that is SUSHI for us!  I did a little researching around, found a sushi place that was recommended... so the "stars" said... but couldn't read the German...  We decided to walk, as it was near the market center. We were there in under 5 minutes! Wow. Everything was SO close!  The place was busy, so we sat at the sushi bar. We ordered, and observed people a while, and realized, they may not take credit cards, which MOST places in Germany do not. Well, they don't. The server pointed out an ATM nearby, so Mike ran over while we waited on the main course, and got some Euros.  #thatsgonnacostus  Whew!  All was well. We now inquire before ordering!  The sushi was wonderful!  Afterward, we walked around the market center, and I showed Mike all of the places I'd been frequenting all week long. We stopped by the larger Starbucks for coffee, tea and a brownie.... aaaahhhhh.  It was a great evening, walking around, people shopping, and out for dinner, little pubs and bistros tucked in everywhere. The streets are so very safe feeling, and we've never feared being out and about. You don't see police around, and never feel unsafe. I'd been fearful, as they warn about pickpocketing, but I saw more of that in Italy 10 yrs ago!

Saturday morning, pack up and head to Koln, or Cologne, as American's call it. It was NOT very far, but we wanted to spend a couple of days here, and see more sights. We walked up to the city center area, saw the MASSIVE Dom Cathedral. WOW. We'll be going back again tomorrow, and have bought our tickets for the City Tour bus, that will take us to 16 stops around the city, and we can hop on and off all we want for 2 days! Tomorrow will be a full day.  We took our Rick Steves Europe guide book along, and found a recommended place to eat. We walked into a dark, old, pub, loud with jazz style music, found a table, asked for an English menu, and ordered something ham. OH MY. Mike's plate was the best, roasted ham on the bone, with saurkraut and spicy mustard.  I thought there was no way he'd eat it all, but with my help (begging) he finished it all. It was awesome. I might have to try making that at home! GREAT recommendation Rick Steves! Worth the price of the guidebook!

We then walked around the square in the mass of people, looking in a few more stores, while working our way back to our hotel. It's south along the Rhine, a 20 minute walk. Of course, we're a few blocks away from the Chocolate Museum.... Yippeeeee! We stopped there, in their cafe, which was GREAT! Had Cappuccino, Jasmine Tea and Chocolate Duo Gateau. YUUUUUuummmmmm. We ate the diet version, and left the crust!  ;)  HEAVENLY!  I WON'T be making that, as I would EAT it all!

Back in the hotel now... we're tired! Walking around for 5-6 hours every day will do that! So, we've planned out our route for tomorrow, downloaded pictures for you all, and finished this blog! Mike is mastering his Sudoku, and we're chillaxin' with Wine and Jazz!

We hope you all are thawing back in Snowklahoma and Texas!
Auf wiedersehen!

Bonn market Friday night

Walking along Rhein to center

THIS is what I thought Germany would be like!

sorry, don't know how to rotate it... this is the Cathedral

HALF of the cathedral

YUMMY dinner!

Pictures from Monday and Tuesday... finally!

Korean BBQ. YUMmmmm.

Pork, Daikon, kimchi. mmmmmm

Tea break.... no, didn't eat the chocolate... yet.

The Rhein at breakfast.

Gold mosaic!

Munsterbasilika

half of a pizza

shopping in the market square

Just the pictures from Wednesday evening...

Finally, German food. This place was recommended by two locals.

Schnitzel... it was good.

Sausage, potatoes and apple compote.

The Bonnsch beer, brewed onsite.  CHILLED, ya'll.

The interesting glasses. shaped with finger grips, super thin, and angled toward the mouth.  All beer is served with a head on it here...

A day to catch up... otherwise known as Wednesday.

Today is day 5 in Germany. The last few days are a blur... Monday Mike went to work. He's here doing a workshop at a subsidiary of Bell. This is my interpretation, anyway. 

My days start with the gym... hey, it's down across from our courtyard view... just begging me, so I go. I'm always glad when I finish. Then after a German Breakfast... the standard, eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, yogurt, cereal, juice, milk, pastries, etc... plus the additional, sauteed mushrooms, lox, pate', cheese, 6 different juices and other things I can't describe.

Shopping in the market square is so fun! No malls, just people walking around the city center or Zentrum I think it is. No cars, no noise, just people, couples, voices speaking Deutsch,  walking their babies in strollers, and dogs.  I've found that I duck into interesting stores to look around, AND warm up!!! It's so cold! But, it is what it is and I'll make the best of it. Hey, getting here was nearly free, so I cannot complain! 

I've also found there are TWO Starbucks in the market square, and as any Starbucks, you can always find interesting people and conversations.  I was lucky my first day, and found a young high school girl, Katarina who was happy to practice her English. We had a good time discussing school, customs, music and such. American music is playing here 90% of the time, its very bizaar. The younger ones are singing along and its very surreal to me. Katarina and I talked about Pink, who she is going to go see in concert soon. Her parents gave her tickets for Christmas. She was super excited.  As I was about to leave, a young guy stopped me, his name was Jay, and he was here from Michigan on exchange.  He had been here since September, so he told me all about what he'd learned so far.  It was great to talk to both Jay and Katarina. I just love to learn how other people live!

The people have all been very nice, with team dinners the past few evenings. Monday was Pizza... at the most wonderful Italian place. It was so authentic, we felt like we were back in Italy! We're pretty adventurous, and we'll eat almost anything... but tuna on pizza... just doesn't sound good. If someone offered it, I would try it, but not order it without knowing.  I'm not really sure what we ate, but it was extremely good! The word pepperoni translated to a green pepper, I suspect pepperoncini, but we asked for spicy salami... seemed to work just fine.  The antipasti plate they ordered for the table was awesome!  (oh, shoulda warned you... we LOVE food!)

Tuesday was another day of the same... shopping at the market square, all day, exploring all that I could see, and finding another Starbucks! I walked quite a bit farther and found another awesome old church Munsterbasilika i believe. At this new Starbucks, I met a local named Bjorn. We talked about his iPad. (Apple is always a good common interest.)  He was great to talk to, and was very nice. He is an I.T. consultant and travels as well. He said that Germans actually like Americans alot. He said the British are just too hard to understand. I agree, somewhat.  He gave me recommendations on restaurants, places to hit and some to miss.

I nearly got lost, but my compass app on the iPhone came in handy for the first time!  I headed back at 5pm, and the main streets really got busy with cars then.  Then we were off to dinner again. This time... Korean BBQ. Huh... no German yet?  Seems that one of the guys in the workshop is Korean, some head of something at Hyundai/Kia and offered to order for us all. THANK GOODness! Korean dishes, in GERMAN... oh boy. It was wonderful! He told us basically it was Pork Korean BBQ, prepared right at the table. The sides are always different, and presented complementary, varying from place to place. We had Kimchi, (yes, Tome D... we tried it) and it was good.

Today... I rest...well, kind of. Before going to bed I saw that it had snowed. That light, pretty dusting of snow.  This morning... as I sit here in the Waschen (laundromat) watching the locals and how they live... the sun is out, the people are out, bikes riding everywhere, people walking their dogs, and lots of people are bundled up, but carrying on like usual.  It's been MANY years since I've spent time in a laundromat, but I've had my time there.  So far i've spent 3.00 euro and that is cheaper than washing just one item!!! I had TWO bags to wash, so it's worth it... I think... I don't understand German, but lets hope I don't fry our clothes!

Still having problems finding my pictures and attaching them. I will continue loading all of them on my me.com site, so those of you my FB friends, can get the link there!

Oh, the clothes turned out just fine. I think I saved about $60 going and doing them myself, AND I got exercise just getting there and back!

More tomorrow! ...or Friday. Tomorrow night is bowling... #huh?  I think we will move on to Koln (Cologne) Friday as Mike's workshop will be finished. After that... we shall see!

Catching up...

I am behind. It's hard to stop and write when there is so much to explore. I will catch up today. Time for laundry!

Road to Trier... Day 2

Today was a leisurely Sunday... well rested, we woke up late, ate brunch downstairs... interesting German twist on standard brunch. Got my fill of sauteed mushrooms. NEVER had mushrooms for breakfast, but YUM!  Pate, brie, sausage, pork meatballs, although I skipped the baked beans and broiled tomato halves... hhhhmmmm.

We took off southwest on a quest to see Trier. (Treer) The oldest Christian church in Germany, and great Roman ruins around.  Trier was founded by Augustus in 16 B.C.  We toured the Porta Nigra and Museum, then found the Cathedral after going thru MarketSquare.  Thinking that this church was built after Christianity was LEGALIZED here A.D. 312... wow.  So much history, architecture, ornateness and grandeur!  It was a great afternoon. Seems it had snowed in the area, on the way home, but we had a dry, COLD day in Trier. WOW, it was cold!

I still cannot get over the common, natural charm of the small German villages, all of the little communities that dot every valley along the Autobahn, and how FAST these people drive... wow. Almost more important to watch your rearview mirror, than what is in front of you! Put the possibility of deer crossing the roads, and you have a recipe for disaster!  I did decide, that I have yet to see a police officer on the road yet.  Can't wait to talk to some of the younger locals about all of the customs and daily life. Younger locals, as those are the ones that speak more English!

For some reason, pictures won't load for me for the last 10 hours. I will post this update, and add the pics as soon as I figure out what is going on.... sorry.  You can see the pics on my me.com sight... if you have the link ;)

Melanie

Scenes from Germany... Day 1

We landed about 7:30am, Frankfurt time. (Keep in mind, that was 12:30am TX time) SO glad we "slept" on the flight. We got to catch Social Network, the movie, on the plane... good distraction, and not a bad movie.  We walked what seemed to be forever in the Frankfurt airport to get our rental car... and thank goodness for NAV, we programmed Bonn into it, after I reprogrammed it to ENGLISH, while Mike drove. We followed her half the way, but decided we wanted a little more adventure, so took a detour, and we're so glad we did! We took a smaller highway, (9) along the Rhine, and got to drive thru several small towns and by several churches and castles along the way!

One thing that I did forget was my leather gloves, so when spying what I identified as an Outlet Mall (yeah!) we stopped for a bit, got a snack, (what was translated to be mixed sausage- sheep, pig, cow... 5 links, and quite yummy) a diet coke, and a pair of gloves... we were back on our way.

Once checked in to our hotel, we walked the marketplace area. WHAT a great sunny day. SOooooo glad we brought that TEXAS sun with us! They seemed to like it, and people were out in droves!  I don't care how much sun, it was still 25 degrees... and BBBBrrrrrrr. We found a few shops to duck into and browse, just to warm up!

We found a cute little place in the main square! An area that has a webcam that I've been spying on for about 2 weeks.  We took our picture in that same spot, and ate at the cafe right there!  We don't know what it was, but it was yummy... OF COURSE I took pics, it's FOOD!

It's now 5:16, but we are exhausted, so we're back to the room, showered, and Mike is OUT!!! Couldn't keep him up any longer. ME... gotta get these pics up, for those of you living vicarously thru our travels... ;) You know who you are!

More later!!! Stay tuned!   Now for some pics... Excuse the mess of the order. I promise to do better!

  I drank 3 of these full of water on the one flight! Wow, it really dries you out.

 View of the Rhine from our room...

 Vendors set up for farmers market (that's what it looked like)

 Beethoven's home in Bonn. About 2 blocks from our hotel.

 The sausage that we ate!!! MMMM. 5 links for 2 euros.

Ok, I nearly give up. I'm learning to load pics in smaller batches. Sorry about them being out of order!

More later!